This work is a direct response to my experience of the Mexican landscape, a place that feels both distant and familiar. Inspired by my mother's black-and-white family photographs depicting my Mexican relatives, I followed in her footsteps, seeking out the same kinds of landscapes captured in those images: volcano, desert, sea, and mountain.

I set out to experience these landscapes firsthand, to reconnect with a natural world that is part of my heritage. As a child, I lived in Mexico for six years, but I hadn’t returned in over two decades. This residency became an opportunity to bridge that gap, to recover a lost connection and rediscover the land that, in many ways, has shaped my identity. The resulting paintings are based on visits to Tlaxcala, Puebla, and Oaxaca.

The works are made with oil on canvas and linen, and feature portraits of cacti, abstractions of the sun and heat, the shimmer and rhythm of the sea, mountains stretching into the distance, a smoking volcano, and the vibrant bird of paradise. They are my translation of the essence of the Mexican land—its colors, textures, and rhythms—into a visual language that captures both the grandeur and intimacy of these landscapes.

Nina Elizabeth

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